Mute Go
by The oddest thing
Summary: Sai is a rich but mute and introverted young man who has been disappointed from life too many times already. But his life changes once he meets a student for his greatest joy, Go. AU
1. Prologue

_**Disclaimer:**_ I own neither characters nor idea, Hikaru no Go belongs to its respectful creators and owners. I only own those more or less badly written words there. I also don't intend to make profit with this story. Only mental profit. Encouragement, useful criticism and the like :)

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

_It was a sunny mid-summer day. The birds sang their lovely songs and the air smelled of heat. In the shade of the terrace there sat two figures, like any other sane person they were seeking out the cool outside of sun's reach. Those two figures were grandpa and grandson. Currently grandpa was telling grandson one of his bigger exploits, which had happened in, of course, Go. _

_Hikaru groaned. „Grandpa! Are you going senile on me now? That's about the 99__th__ time I've heard about you winning the Amateur Meijin Tournament twice in a row!"_

"_Well, you can never tell good things often enough, can you." The old man cackled. "And with your life going as it is it might do you good to listen to an old man like me talking about his life."_

_Hikaru groaned again. "Grandpa, I'm only 12 years old! I don't know yet where my life will be going. What's so great about winning some tournaments in an unpopular game like that anyway? Ow!"_

_The bleach banged boy sulkily rubbed his head where his grandfather had just hit him._

"_Only because YOU don't know about it!" The old man sputtered. "That doesn't mean it's unpopular. Hmph, kids those days. Only manga and video games in their brains!"_

_Hikaru sighed. Lamenting about the good old times was one of his grandfather's favourite past times. And with an audience such as his "already corrupted" grandson it was all the better. If it wasn't for this promise to his mother he wouldn't even have come. But the old man had asked kaa-san for a favour which had included ordering something online. The ordering had been done by Hikaru's father and the delivering, of course, by Hikaru himself. Thus he was sitting here listening to the old Shindou's ceaseless chattering. _

_Deciding to put an end to it he hastily stood up. "Oh it's already past 4 o'clock. I really don't want to miss dinner!"_

_Heihachi rubbed his balding head. "Could you do me a favour and deliver something on your way home?" He asked. Hikaru eyed him warily. "Let me guess, this weird package you had ordered?" _

_Old Shindou nodded. "I ordered it for an old friend of mine. He lives four houses down from my house." _

"_But there are only three houses down this street." Hikaru observed, confused. _

"_You forgot the one making this street a dead end, didn't you?"_

_The kid's natural fear and respect of anything stiff and stilted set in. He paled. "This awesome big loaded-looking mansion?! No way I'm going there!"_

"_Come on you coward! I'll give you 1.000 yen if you manage to deliver this package!"_

_Hikaru hesitated, but not for long. _

"_Deal!" He said, but he didn't even suspect that this deal would change his life drastically… yet. _

"_Hikaru?" Grandpa added like in after-thought. _

"_Yes?" _

"_Behave." _

"…_Hai."_

Taking his grandpa's slyness and his own fear of over formalness into account Hikaru was not a happy camper. His stomach growled and the heat was killing him. Not a happy camper indeed. After following the narrow street enclosed by walls and houses down he had reached his great fear. The awe-inspiring mansion was surrounded by a fairy tale-like traditional garden. A spiked fence about five times higher than Hikaru was big made trespassing nearly impossible. The gate was not less intimidating, and not less closed for that. Hikaru didn't even want to consider what such an extreme safety measure said about its occupants. Was grandpa really friends with that kind of people?

'Now if only they had some really aggro watchdogs.' He thought sarcastically. Great, now he had the shivers too. Grabbing the thick package tighter to his chest he went about looking for something to make his presence known with.

After looking for a door bell for who knows how long he sighed and sacked in and put his back against the metal gate poles with force.

'How am I supposed to get in now?' he thought, exasperated. His stomach growled pitifully. 'Damn, I'm hungry and I'm thirsty.' Contemplating if going back to his grandpa's and telling the old man that a delivery was impossible wouldn't actually be the safest way. He nearly had a heart attack when the gate suddenly gave in. Seriously, what kind of a rich man's gate with an image to keep would cave in at the weight of a twelve year old athletic boy? This kind of gate did. With an undignified yelp the boy landed on his behind. Unfortunately for him the ground was plastered with tiny spiky stones. Now if someone had listened in they would really have thought that the Fujiwaras owned aggro dogs. Unbeknown to them it was Hikaru who was making those angry growling sounds while rubbing his poor abused behind.

Coming closer to the house he noticed the lack of anything that marked a house to be lived in. Actually everything, except the garden, distinctly lacked human touch and if he hadn't known any better he would have thought it to be abandoned. When he had entered the mansion's compounds he had immediately noticed a drop in temperature. Not knowing how it came to be but secretly relieved, he went in search of an entrance.

'What kind of era does this guy live in? No door bell again.' Ignoring the weird looking dog head on the front door he went in search of another entrance when he noticed a window wide opened, situated only about two meters above his head. Grinning, having completely forgotten his unusual anxious state which always set in when he got confronted with the stilted life-style of the rich, he headed over to one of the less delicate trees of the garden. Climbing up he somehow managed to go through the window. The room within wasn't really what he had thought it to be. Not only did it look like something his grandfather would have liked, the man occupying it was a lot younger than he would have expected.

"Uh… who are you?" Hikaru asked, in lack of anything better to say, since it was obviously a little bit too late to run. It came out a bit hoarse though. He cleared his throat. 'Behave.' He recalled dryly. His grandfather knew him well indeed. The elegantly dressed purple haired man looked at him silently for a while and then he slowly took out some paper and a pencil. With the pencil he wrote something on one piece of paper, but the boy couldn't well see from where he stood. The clock was calmly ticking time away and finally, before he started fidgeting, he walked over until he could gaze at what the man was writing.

'Who are YOU? Trespassing is a crime, you know?' was written there in elegant Kanji. Hikaru paled a bit and hastily said "My grandpa sent me. He said to give you this package." Nearly dropping it in his haste he put it on the desk in front of Fujiwara-san. With intent curiosity he watched as the package's recipient looked down at it for a while and finally, eyes filled with some kind of strange caution, moved his slim finger towards the wrappings. Not knowing the reason for the man's weird cautiousness the kind part of Hikaru couldn't help it but blurt out: "You know grandpa really only thinks nicely about you. He even ordered this for you. I'm sure it's some kind of gift."

A slight shiver went through the man's frame, but his next actions for sure seemed much less unsure. The wrappings fell away and the contents were revealed. "Oh, it's only a Goban." Hikaru said without thinking, disappointed.


	2. Chapter 1

_**anonymous fanfiction guide material #1**_

"When writing a fanfic and getting an awesome inspirational thought forget about style and grammar for a while, you can always revise it later on. Those idea birdies are rare things."

* * *

**A/N** The rest of the first chapter is some kind of introduction to get a feel of how their relationship develops. 2nd chapter onwards will have more of Go.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** See prologue

_It had been nearly one year since young Hikaru had met Sai. The boy still had to chuckle when he thought about both their reactions after the dooming words "Oh it's only a goban" had left his lips. That time he had really believed that Sai was about to suffocate, the poor guy's face had turned nearly as purple as his hair after all._

* * *

After his first (but not last, alas) moment of ineptness was over he finally noticed that the Fujiwara heir was a very beautiful person. Hadn't he worn men clothes Hikaru would have mistaken him for a woman immediately. His face was elegant and well-shaped yet humble and perfectly suited the room's interior. Well, with the one exception that the room's interior was mostly white and brown, not purple. Even if Hikaru was dense, and he certainly was, he wasn't THAT thick not to understand that Fujiwara's current fit was entirely his fault.

"Uh… I mean, it's true… kinda…_ehehe_." Hikaru gracelessly tried to diffuse the situation. Rubbing the back of his head awkwardly he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind in a placating frenzy: "I mean, after all the trouble grandpa went through he gave you something old men play their last years away with?"

If his words didn't calm the guy down (which would seem pretty unrealistic), they at least did achieve _something_. Now there was a pondering expression on Fujiwara-san's face and the contemplating dark gazes Hikaru received made him want to run for the door… or the window. Not knowing what a stranger was thinking and being on the receiving end of such blatant regard would make anyone want to run for his money.

Out of the blue Fujiwara neatly rose up from his sitting form and crooked one finger at the boy, and then poked the same one at a western styled chair standing on the other side of the room. Looking confused from one thing to the other Hikaru exclaimed, pointing at himself: "Me?!"

Mauve eyes danced, suddenly amused, at him as if to say: 'Do you see anyone else in this room?'

Admittedly, he got a bit curious. The cautious yet merry stranger fascinated him in some inexplicable way, and the modestly furnished room had done a lot to calm down his raging nerves. Even though the boy was the epitaph of an outdoor person, seeing a normal room in a house like this was like having soccer practice after an especially nerve-racking test in social studies.

'_Maybe it won't be too bad to give in to his will for now._' He thought uncharacteristically, for the moment having entirely forgotten that he was supposed to be a brat and leave for his well-earned dinner and money, and not necessarily in that order.

Pulling the chair over he warily sat down and peaked shyly at the other person. Said person merely smiled in some mysterious way and took the remaining tools out of the package.

"_Ano_… what do you need me for?" Not being known for his patient nature it didn't take the boy a long time to pose this particular question. Still relinquishing nothing Fujiwara put away the sports magazine he had been reading intently before Hikaru arrived and instead used all the space on the desk for the goban and bowls. Only then he slowly took up his writing utensils again.

'_I merely want to listen to the heavenly sound Go stones make, touching this Goban's surface once again.'_ Sai wrote, and even his writing had taken on a melancholic note, if such a thing was even possible.

"Then why don't you just play by yourself?" Hikaru asked, insensitive like always. Yet the man didn't seem offended. Secretly liking the boy's honest nature he put down, his face animated with some kind of inner light.

'_A Go board is meant to be played by two people. Like the game itself it's supposed to exist for a meeting of two minds.'_

"Really?" Despite his inner aversion to the game he reluctantly was awed by this fierce statement.

'_Please play a game with me.'_

"But I can't play!"

'_It doesn't matter, just let us put down stones of one color in turns.'_

"I at least do know THAT much."

Seeing the honesty in the boy's statement Sai smiled, knowing his instincts had been dead on this time.

* * *

"_Tadaima_! I'm hungry, mom!" He shouted brightly, not waiting for the customary "welcome back" he kicked off his shoes and jogged up the stairs towards his room. "Hikaru?" Came his mother's muffled voice from somewhere downstairs. "Where have you been for that long?"

"Helped jii-chan with his delivery!"Hikaru yelled back.

After he put away his bag and took a brief shower he came jumping down the stairs into the kitchen. That's where his mother was too. When she noticed that her only son was being even more bouncy than usual, her light brown eyes got a worried gleam to them.

"Dad didn't make you do something weird again, did he?" She half-joked. "Like offering you sake or making a bet for money or…" "Geez, don't worry mom!" Hikaru interrupted her, suddenly intent on defending his overly chatty grandpa. "He just complained a lot like always. Oh and he made me deliver something to a friend of his!"

Mitsuko looked even more worried now. "You did behave yourself, didn't you?"

Brashly grabbing one _maki_ from a plate he stuffed it into his hungry mouth and answered confidently: "Oph cous."

A short pause. Mitsuko was looking at him in a decidedly amused way now.

"Mom?" he continued after having satisfied his worst hunger.

"What is it, Hikaru-chan?" "Will you pack me something of this for lunch tomorrow? It's awesome stuff."

* * *

The next day at school he slept away half of the lessons. This was nothing new though and about every 5 minutes he got poked into his right side by a heavily determined girl. "If you sleep now I won't let you copy my homework any longer." She hissed at him. "Oh come on, Akari." The boy groaned after an especially hurtful poke near the second break.

But the girl didn't cave. "It doesn't matter much anyway, because we have the last big text in social studies tomorrow."

"Really!?" Hikaru felt trepidation. "I got 8% on the last test, if I bungle this one up I'm done for!" She looked at him in an affectionate yet exasperated way. _'8%? Geez…'_

Hikaru groaned again, this time feeling real doom approaching stealthily.

The following day found Hikaru groaning again, this time over an innocent looking piece of paper. _'Crap, who was that guy again? Who decided this reform? Who wrote The Tale of Genji? When was I born again? ARRRGH!'_ His poor brain was working rapidly, but its output still remained the same. _Nada_. _Nothing_. Ruffling his bleached bangs he was about to give in to frustration. His parents had threatened to cut off his allowance if he managed something less that 80% on this test. And he wasn't all too sure if he could drive the score even up to 2%. Peeking quick glances at his neighbours he saw that they had already filled in more or less most of the answers but were mulling it over a lot. Didn't look all too good for his class this time…

"Shindou! Why is your sheet still empty?" The obnoxious voice of the teacher reached his ears. "Geez, alright, I'll start on it now!" Not much hope for that.

Life almost never went as one expected it to, and the current location of one Shindou Hikaru, devoted P.E. student though mightily slacking in academics, proved this platitude once more to be true.

Fujiwara Sai was just returning from the kitchen down-stairs, a tray with two glasses of juice in hand, only to find the boy that had invaded his sanctuary so recently in deep thought.

It was his second visit to the Fujiwara mansion and the last some minutes Sai had voluntarily listened to his time filling 'blown out of proportion' tales of every day occurrences, even smiling tentatively and nodding enthusiastically at some points. Hikaru got a satisfied feeling in his chest when he saw this happy impression on the other's face. Not that he would admit to it. Being mushy like a girl was really not cool after all.

For an unknown reason this guy had closed himself off in mind and even in body too. And for whatever reason Hikaru seemed to be the only person whose presence he truly appreciated, according to his grandpa at least. He had had mixed feelings about returning here, but his grandpa had dramatically exclaimed about how lonely his best friend's little boy was, how happy he had seemed after Hikaru's first visit, how much he needed an outgoing young person like Hikaru as a friend _blabla_ _yapyapyap_…

"_Sai-kun __has been raised as a specialist in Japanese culture, you know?" Heihachi added inconspicuously. "Sai-kun?" That earned Hikaru a head nut: "Baka! You delivered the goban to him only 2 days ago, remember?" "Ah this girly looking rich guy!" the boy exclaimed, thumbing his fists together in an age old heureka fashion. _

_His grandpa sighed. "And to think that my daughter raised you… you wouldn't even recognize manners if they hit you in the head."_

"_Geez, his name's strange too." Hikaru muttered, now sulkily rubbing his head, even if just to make a point. He had actually already forgotten about his visit two days ago. It wasn't that Fujiwara hadn't left any impression on him, it just got pushed away by all the other things he had done since then._

"_How did your social studies test go?"_

"_Don't ask…"_

"_So __you aren't planning on visiting Sai-kun again?"_

"_What does one thing have to do with the other?" The man was kinda weird and he really didn't plan on playing boring Go again._

_The old man sighed. __"Hikaru, you're really dense." _

"_First I'm silly now I'm dense?! Why do I have to make that guy my business anyway?" Heihachi did his exclamation away as being completely rhetorical. _

"_Why don't you ask him for help with your studies? He's really nice and good at explaining, you know. Plus he might regain something from your presence."_

…

For the second time in a two-day period of time Hikaru was rudely awoken from his mid day slumber by something poking into his side.

"Ah, yes!" Hearing a toneless giggle he grinned brightly at the other guy. "_Gomen_, I was kinda uh… remembering something."

'It's alright.' This time a smiling Fujiwara was using a small note pad he easily held up. Someone had been prepared_. _

"So…um…" He began, nearly drawing a face. With all those negative thoughts being sent outwards Hikaru would be surprised if the old fox hadn't a merry sneeze parade about now.

'Heihachi-san sent you, right?' Someone was amused too. 'He told me. He sometimes comes over, but not too often.'

"Ah… that's right… hehe." Great, now he started to feel bad that he had to be forced into it. "Um… that is… Fujiwara-san…" 'No need to be so formal. Call me Sai.'

"Alright… Sai." Why was it so damn hard to ask this guy for a favour anyway? "Please help me with studying!" He blurted out.

'Go?' Even this one word seemed to be dancing a happy impromptu. Now he remembered why… "Hell, no! You remember I told you about this test in social studies, right? I have to redo it and if I fail again my parents will probably never allow me to see the outside of my home until I get it right."

Fuji… Sai looked disappointed for a second or two. The thought of teaching a young student like Hikaru again was somehow tempting. But first he had to get rid of this annoying reluctance of his… By now he had sat down and was busily scribbling away on his new medium. Hikaru gulped. He didn't like this determined gleam in the other's eyes… at all. And for sure, the next message read: 'Only on one condition.'

He eyed the sentence warily, as if it might bite.

'You'll let me teach you Go.' _Bingo!_

"Why would I want to learn Go!"

'Go will help you to learn memorizing things too. With your current memorization skills even I might be challenged. Hence before each lesson we will play a round of Go.'

This sounded like one hell of a boring next weeks, but Hikaru would do about anything to get his allowance back. Even play some weeks of Go.

"Alright." He agreed heavily. 'Good.' Smiling, Fuj…Sai repeated his old ritual of clearing the desk for goban and bowls. 'Let's start with _shidou Go_.'

"Shidou Go?"

'In _shidou Go_ you don't aim to win but to teach. Winning is not encouraged in _shidou Go_ at all.'

"That means when you play that way I will win against you?" The boy asked eagerly. Go might be one heck of a boring game, but a free win was always a good thing.

Sai smiled mysteriously, raising a cheerful array of words.

'You can always try.'

* * *

**Chapter 1 END****: The meeting of Hikaru and Sai**

* * *

Hm… might rewrite it later on, but it's OK for a first attempt *YAY*

_[1]_

Thanks for your support! I'm sorry to say that I can't fulfil all your wishes in one go (haha, that's not a pun), but some of them will actually come to fruition in this chapter.

I'll take all your wishes and recommendations into consideration, but in the end there is a lot of plot pieces already planned through.

By the way, I'll update about every week. I want my chapters to be more than 3 pages long from now on and I'm known to prefer writing short stories, so there…

Concerning the "having a student like Hikaru again" thing. Sai DID have students, but always more than one at once. The summary is kind of misleading, sorry for that^^

Oh and his quick reaction to Hikaru: Sai is a very veeery fast writer ;)

_[2]_

_Tadaima_.... customary greeting when you arrive back home from somewhere

_Ano_... A speech filler, especially when you are unsure, asking a question, when you want to grab someone's attention…

_Jii-chan_… affectionate way to say grandfather

_Shidou-go_… teaching Go

_Gomen_… sorry

Tell me if I got it wrong :)


	3. Chapter 2

**Previously:**

"That means when you play that way I will win against you?" The boy asked eagerly. Go might be one heck of a boring game, but a free win was always a good thing.

Sai smiled mysteriously, raising a cheerful array of words.

'You can always try.'

* * *

'_Let's start with freedom and __chains. Stones form a chain when they are connected on the goban. A stone is not connected though when it stands diagonal to another single stone or a chain. The bigger your chain is the more freedom it has and the harder it is to kill. Freedom refers to empty grid points that are closely surrounding it. It's critical once a chain has only one freedom left .Now let's play a game of Catch Go.'_

_Sai demonstrated. After several tries __Hikaru managed to catch one of Sai's stones first and defend his stones at the same time._

'_Alright. Now I'll explain eyes and life and death. This is a very important thing in Go so pay attention. __Once a group has two eyes it lives, which means it can't be killed by the opponent, because it's impossible to surround it completely, it will always have one freedom left. Eyes look like "holes" inside a group. It's also critical to stop your opponent from forming too many eyes or you will have a hard time defeating him. There are also eyes that are not real eyes. They are mostly single stones arranged near a group in a way that makes it look like one. Now we'll try to solve some Go problems of life and death.'_

_Despite his lack of enthusiasm to learn the game Hikaru did as he was bidden. Sai looked lonely as he was putting down stone after stone._

_

* * *

  
_

**Chapter 2**

"The annual Haze High School festival will be soon, you want to come?"

"I don't know…" Hikaru huffed. "I'm kind of busy with studying and appeasing this Go obsessed guy, you know?"

"Then why do you keep visiting him when his obsession annoys you that much?" To be honest, his childhood friend was confused. Hikaru had never shown any interest in people with polar-opposite obsessions to his after all.

"I don't know…" Hikaru decided he might soon sound like a semi-broken music player. He contemplated her question more carefully.

"Even if we don't have the same wave-length his mania kinda fascinates me, you know? Plus he helps me a lot with school work and he looks like he's in need of someone to draw him out a bit, he used to be a very outgoing person after all." They had reached the school lockers now and over the inconstant noise of emptying and filling the space inside floated her next question: "He told you that?" "No, grandpa told me. The old man used to play Go a lot with Sai's uncle." "Really, Hikaru, don't call your grandpa old man." "But he IS old!"

Secretly Akari thought that Hikaru had matured a little bit, though. Maybe this Sai guy was good influence on him.

* * *

_Intermission_

It was the usual day in Touya Akira's life. Being the son of the best Go player Japan, maybe even the whole world, had to offer made him the focus point of many things. One of them was the crowd of zealous reporters, the other one was a throng of jealous children of the same age, usually his class mates. Even though they claimed Go to be a boring game Akira could still feel their envy glaring at him. _They just don't understand, _he always thought. _How could they?_

He was currently sitting inside his father's Go salon in one corner of the huge hall that was the place where more or less great, but always eager, minds met over a goban to play Go. Looking around he saw many familiar faces among the clientele, but some times he felt this kind of moody atmosphere bearing down on him. He couldn't quite place this feeling, but it felt a lot like loneliness.

"Akira-kun? Akira-kun!"

"_Hai_?" A very distracted Akira looked up only to see Ichikawa-san standing next to him, a tray containing four drinks in one hand.

"I've been calling your name for some time now. Where have you been off to?"

"_Gomen_." The boy hastily rose from his seat, looking apologetic. "I meant no disrespect. Can I help you with something?"

Tilting her head slightly to the left she eyed him thoughtfully.

"You looked mightily depressed just now."

"Um… that is…"

"Well, I might know THE thing to raise your spirits though." She chirped, putting the try onto Akira's desk and conjuring an inconspicuous looking sheet of paper into being. "There will be a Go convention that holds interest for amateurs as well as pros. You might find some inspiration there."

He thanked her with a bright smile that made her blush at its cuteness.

_Intermission End_

_

* * *

  
_

A cool breeze was blowing, ruffling soft grass and green leaves. The air was filled with some soft aroma and sun and shadow were drawing merry patterns of dark and light onto the garden grounds. In the shadow of a tree sat two people, currently immersed in some board game. Looking closer it looked a lot like the ancient game of Go. It was after a particularly satisfying afternoon game of soccer at Hikaru's school and as a result he was in good mood for his weekly after school lessons.

"I might be going to this school festival this week-end." Hikaru informed his sensei out of the blue, currently pondering his next move. "Want to come too?" This time they were sitting outside near the garden pond that supplied the whole compound with a nice cooling air, the goban in between them and more (Sai) or less (Hikaru) happily playing away their time before history lessons started, courtesy to Sai, thank you very much.

'_DO_ you want to come too?' Sai corrected absentmindedly.

_Pa-chi._

'Geez, Hikaru, how could you overlook such an obvious _atari_?'

"Hai hai." The boy huffed, rolling his eyes at him. "It's not like I want to play, you know?" He couldn't help but point out. _'Hikaruuu!'_ The disappointed puppy eyed expression on Sai's face was that obvious, the older guy hadn't even needed to utilize his usual notepad and pencil, the boy still got the message loud and clear.

"Argh! I'll try to do better from now on, alright? So stop whining, it's eerie." Lending his concentration back to the game he suddenly noticed that a particularly strong breeze of wind had moved most of the light stones.

"Crap." He cursed, earning himself a head cuff from Sai. "Sai, the game is bungled up now!" 'It seems so. Can you figure out where the stones were placed originally?' Now that he mentioned it a faint image of the former board came to his mind, but it was far too faint to grab onto it. "_Haha_. Funny, Sai."

Said guy sighed. 'I was about to end it anyway, let's start a new one.'

"Heck no, you promised only one game before studying!"

'Oh and you love studying that much?'

Hikaru grumbled something unintelligible about priorities and such, but Sai couldn't quite catch it.

The topic about the festival didn't come up again for the next few hours. In fact Hikaru had forgotten about his offer, until he saw a recent edition of the sports magazine (he now vaguely recognized as Weekly Go) folded beneath Sai's notepad. So while he was lying stomach down on a soft patch of grass, busy putting down notes and comparing them to Sai's (who had strictly forbidden him to copy) he exclaimed without looking up: "Ah, that's right! You still didn't answer me!"

That earned him a confused look.

"About the school festival thing." Hikaru elaborated rather impatiently.

Hearing a soft sniff coming from his left he sat up and turned towards the sound, consternated. He hadn't said anything wrong, had he? "Sai…?" With the pencil in one hand said guy sat stiffly and a stream of tears was running down his cheeks. "Wah….wah… Sai, why are you crying!? Crap, you're a man, men don't cry!" Poor Hikaru had jumped up and was flailing his hands around wildly, not knowing what to do. Taking pity on his inexperienced little friend the crying man rubbed his eyes then loosened his hand on the pencil and took up the notepad once again. 'It's alright now. This was just something that overcame me.' "_Oi_… I won't offer you again to come, so don't cry anymore, alright?"

'I can't come.' The short note looked like it was about to drown. 'There even was another place I wanted to go to, but I can't go there either…' And the water works were back. _ARGH!_

"Geez, Sai!" Hikaru sat down with a soft plop, glaring intently at his sensei, impatiently thinking that consoling a weepy Sai was impossible, hence deciding to ignore it. "Why can't you go there!? You're not a total cripple after all!"

Sai was sitting in his usual _seiza_, only this time looking down morosely at his lap instead of facing merrily ahead.

There was a discomfited silence for quite some time, only filled by some birds singing, small animals rustling in the foliage and the very faint sounds of the daily traffic, until the boy couldn't take it any longer.

Hikaru puffed. "Fine, if you don't want to answer, then don't!" But Sai did.

'I'm not allowed to leave. Ever.'

"Huh, why!? Hikaru exclaimed incredulously. 'I'm in rather… unique circumstances.' And he didn't elaborate any further.

Staring incredulously at him (since Sai had been mightily forth-coming until now) he finally huffed and went back to his lessons. "Hmph, whatever, I won't care any more!"

_I wished I could tell you the reason_, Sai thought sadly. _But I won't for your own good._

Instead of telling the boy to stop sulking like a child he decided to recreate some games of old on the goban.

After some minutes of feeling sorry for himself it seemed more and more like a petty past time though. Getting over his initial disappointment (well, one reason was that he had reached a particular difficult question to solve) the boy looked up from his homework and took in Sai's serene expression as he seemed to arrange both black and whites stones onto the goban. He watched him like that for a while, for the first time consciously pondering the mystery that was Sai.

Hikaru finally asked softly: "What was this other place…?" 'Huh… ah! Yes, there is this Go convention down town, opened Saturday and Sunday. I really wanted to go too…'

* * *

And hence early Saturday afternoon found young Shindou standing in front of a rather huge looking convention hall, feeling rather out of place in his yellow sweater, baggy trousers and sports shoes. 'I didn't know that Go was such an important thing.' He mused. 'The sponsors must be really rich.' Once he, in his folly, had told Sai that "he might take a look at it for him", even if only to make his water works stop, the stupid guy had bounced on him like an eager puppy waging his tail. Geez, how could he have said No to this kind of guy? This was like telling a baby it had to become an adult by tomorrow morning. And he hadn't even managed to wedge some hours of Go off with this. Sai was much too sly for his own good. There was a stream of people arriving and leaving and adding himself to a group of four teenagers (again a surprise) Hikaru followed them into the building.

END Chapter 2: The mystery that is Sai

**Next chapter: ****Hikaru at the Go convention**

**

* * *

  
**

**A/N It seems rather boring… I'm not sure, it might be because I already know how it will turn out though XD**

**Anyway, this story will become a bit darker later on. Just to prepare you.**

**Oh and I just felt like writing about Akira. Change of pace you know^^ **


	4. Note

Well what a great beginning!

I will be gone for a while with no Internet connection whatsoever.

**Good news:**

I have time and means to rewrite the story and I've got some new suspenseful ideas too. You might have noticed that I wasn't really satisfied^^

I'd love you to keep this story in your alerts, but if you don't want to wait it's OK too :'(

I'm also planning on recreating my style, I like the interactive one more (like in Watch and Learn by esama). My head is full of metaphors I just don't dare using them :p

Thanks for your support till now!


End file.
